Authors: Carolina Cantergiani, Gemma Garcia Blanco

The current unprecedented crisis has put to the test all aspects of our life, including cross-border cooperation, which is facing its most challenging times in decades. Overnight, Member States closed their borders across the EU without consulting their neighbours or even local and regional authorities thus effecting everyday lives of people living in border regions. It has also put different sectors of economy into a very difficult position. This was, for example, the case with health and elderly care in some border regions, which depend on the workforce coming from the other side of the border. On the other hand, this crisis also shows the incredible resourcefulness and solidarity between the peoples of Europe, proving once again that cross-border cooperation is not only wanted by Europe’s citizens, but it is also essential for a good living quality of many of them. It has shown us how fragile the results of long-term endeavours are and that we should not take them for granted. It is my strong believe that this crisis is also an opportunity that will help us place even stronger emphasis on the benefits of cross border cooperation and bring it to the centre if the European political agenda.

" One of the most innovative approaches used in the GRETA project was the assessment of the GI contribution to policy objectives related to biodiversity, climate change

The European Committee of Regions (CoR) stepped-in right at the beginning of the crisis in an effort to revive and reinforce cooperation across borders. To look into what was happening on the ground, the CoR launched the COVID-19 platform on its website in March. Shortly after launching this platform, it was clear that we would need to specifically look at the border regions as they were disproportionally affected by this crisis (dedicated section to cross-border cooperation). CoR decided to partner with the European Commission (DG REGIO) and the leading associations; the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), the Mission Operationelle Transfrontalière (MOT) and the Central European Service for Cross-border Initiatives (CESCI), to pool resources together and publish the many stories and experiences in one place. So far over 100 stories on the cross-border and transnational experiences have been published. These valuable experiences will be used in CoR consultative works and support an in-depth analysis of what the crisis means for cross-border cooperation and how cooperation across borders can help address this new situation in the future. Actually, I hope that instead of closing the borders, the cross-border cooperation should become an integral part of addressing such a complex crisis together.